I took a shower, but was a little late in getting down to breakfast so I just grabbed a water and a bocadillo on the way out the door. I was pretty disappointed when I saw that it was tuna and cheese and I threw it out. Tuna is definitely not one of my favorites. In Literature, we had presentations that took up most of class. The most interesting presentation was on “Generacion 98.” Spanish literature groups some prolific or influential writers of their time into generations. It is really cool to look at the similarities in message, writing style.
In Culture, we had more presentations. David and I presented on Spanish history starting with Carlos IV (the king of Spain during Napoleon’s reign) leading up through the industrial revolution. The presentations went well and we talked about all of the rituals for Semana Santa in Spain. Processions are a similarity between all of the regions. For penance, men can volunteer to hoist very heavy religious relics and statues of Jesus or Mary and carry them all around the city. In the north there is a region called Navarra that has a procession that is in complete silence and held at night. The tone is much more serious and it is meant for reflection. In the South such as Sevilla there is applause and talking is permitted. The most well known relic is a statue of Mary crying called the Madre Macarena. It is Mary depicted as a woman that has very similar looks to an Andalucian woman so it is very important to the south of Spain.
After class, I ate lunch and shortly after went with Dave, Ben and Rebecca to el Rio to throw a Frisbee. It was fun except we had a little wind issue; the Frisbee wasn’t heavy enough and it would go wherever it desired when thrown. After we got tired of fighting the wind, we went over to one of the large jungle gyms and climbed up two huge rope towers that were strung like a spider web. Dave and I sat at the top for a while and just people watched. There were jugglers that were actually very good and I assume they were practicing for a street show or something. Also there was a group of four teenagers that had buried a bouncy ball halfway in the sand and were using it for an extra help on jumps. They were doing all sorts of cool twists and flips.
We got back at like 6:00 and right as I was sitting down, Ashley came in my room and asked if any of us wanted to go to a café. I quickly said I wanted to go because I really felt like just being out in the city. We went to a new place that I had never been to. I didn’t try any but Ashley said the hummus is excellent. I had a café con leche and started to finish the Alchemist. I really got into it the last part of the book and I especially liked the ending. The book was really good and I thought it had a lot of great messages.
We got back to the dorm at around 8:00. I put down my book and went straight down. We had chicken nuggets (which I made a sandwich with) and my favorite pizza bread. They were out of orange soda so I settled for a water. After dinner, I worked on a Spanish assignment for business class; we had to write a letter to a business describing a product we were selling. After, I went with a few people to O’Haras. We hung out for a couple hours before I came back around 11:00. I played around on the computer for a while and went to bed around 12:30. Today was perfect, great weather, great people and a great city.
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